Finding Validation in Everything Everywhere All at Once

Mixed Asian Media - March 29, 2023

By Lauren Lola

On March 12, 2023, my friend and I watched in absolute glee as the highly buzzed about A24 film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, won seven out of the 11 awards it was nominated for at the 95th Academy Awards. From Michelle Yeoh making history as the first Asian woman to win Best Actress for her multi-faceted performance as Evelyn Wang, to Harrison Ford announcing the film as the winner of Best Picture — much to the excitement of his former co-star and Best Supporting Actor winner, Ke Huy Quan — it was a night of justified jubilation.

Throughout the three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, there was a lot of Instagram story posting, accompanied by a lot of cheering and hugging. It felt like we just won a war, and in many ways, we have; a 95-year one, in fact. Though that’s not to say the battles are over. Now we need to ensure that Everything Everywhere marks the beginning, rather than the exception, to Asian American works being recognized and honored at that level.

Much like a lot of people who’ve seen the film, Everything Everywhere is easily my favorite film of 2022, and also one of my favorite films in general. I love it for most, if not all, of the reasons that other people have. The fight scenes are just an explosion of stunt work that are not as commonly seen in films nowadays, and the fact that the Martial Club were summoned aboard for it just made it all the more spectacular. The introduction to the hotdog universe that Evelyn accidentally verse-jumps to has got to be one of the funniest moments in cinema. I’m intrigued — yet am haunted by — the Daniels’ development of the character of Joy/Jobu Tupaki and her cynical but relatable view on the universe. I tear up just as much as others at Waymond’s line about wishing to spend a life doing laundry and taxes with Evelyn.

There is so much to love about Everything Everywhere, yet it’s only recently that I realized another reason why I’m so enamored with this film. The story is centered on a Chinese American family; one that many Asian American audiences have quickly related to. Yet even with the nuanced experiences of making it in America as an immigrant and intergenerational trauma, the focus was never about identity by way of ethnicity or race, but rather, identity on a more cosmic level. It would explain why even audiences outside of the Asian American community have gravitated toward the film as well. As a creative writer, it’s this aspect of Everything Everywhere that I find particularly validating.

Over the last decade, as I’ve ramped up my creative writing, I've watched Asian American representation progress to where it is now. Earlier on, I often felt like I was doing something wrong when I'd write a story centered on Asian American characters, and the focal point wasn’t about identity. As time went on and more Asian American stories started popping up, I felt the pressure to do identity-driven stories even more so. I mean, just look at what Crazy Rich Asians is about. The title speaks for itself!

That’s not to say there’s no place for stories about identity at all. Speaking as a third-generation and multiracial Filipino American, I’m well aware of how important those kinds of stories are, especially as I still haven’t seen a ton of representation revolving around people with a lived experience similar to mine. These stories are needed and essential, but they shouldn’t be the only kind of story out there. This is particularly notable in the case of Filipino American cinema, where — from films like The Debut to last year’s Easter Sunday — the focus is often still so heavily centered on what it means to be Filipino American. Is there a place for my frequently thoughtful, genre-specific stories to be accepted by the wider Asian American community? Even with the graphic novel I’ve been writing for the past year, my focus has been on telling a good story, while I mostly leave the cultural specificities to my collaborators.

With Everything Everywhere, the door is widening. More stories created by and featuring people that look like us, yet aren’t necessarily about identity, are spiking up. I recently saw the trailers for both the upcoming film, Joy Ride, as well as the Netflix series, Beef. The characters in both projects seem like hot messes, and I just know that people are going to love them for that.

Plus, just because the stories being told aren’t about identity doesn’t mean that it can’t be addressed at all, which is one of the beautiful components about Everything Everywhere. Issues like intergenerational trauma are handled in between the multiverse jargon, googly eyes, and suicidal bagels, overlayed by Son Lux’s moving score. Specificity can be universal, so long as the story remains strong at the end of it all.

I’ve been out here grinding as a creative writer for so long, and seeing the praise and enthusiastic reception Everything Everywhere has been getting for the past year gives me hope for my own stories — the ones already out there and the ones in the works — being just as warmly embraced. To quote Quan (who has returned to acting after not doing so for two decades due to lack of opportunities) in his Oscar acceptance speech, “Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”

OK, Ke, OK. I’ll keep going.

Lauren Lola is an author, freelance writer, playwright, and screenwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of the novels, An Absolute Mind and A Moment’s Worth, as well as the upcoming graphic novel, Dasig. She has written plays that have been produced both virtually and in-person for theatre groups on the West Coast of the United States, and has penned the short films, “Breath of Writing” and “Interview with an Aswang.” Aside from Mixed Asian Media, Lauren has also had writing featured on The Nerds of Color, CAAMedia, PBS, YOMYOMF, and other outlets and publications.

You can find Lauren on Twitter and Instagram @akolaurenlola and on her website, www.lolabythebay.wordpress.com.